Tanmay Bhat On How The Right Content Marketing Strategy Can Boost Your Top-Line
· Consistency is the key, two or three campaigns a year will not make your brand stand out
· True virality is an experiment and not a science that can be bought
· How Network Marketing helps in staying relevant
Time and again, we have these conversations with entrepreneurs where we get a chance to find out their secret sauce of success. When we invited Tanmay Bhat for the podcast, we knew he will have a lot of insights on virality and content marketing, but we must tell you that the episode was way more than just content creation. Tanmay and Ankur also spoke about the involvement of marketing in the product development lifecycles, especially having a content person from the beginning.
We hit gold with Tanmay!
We all know how Tanmay has executed many of the country’s most ambitious content pieces. A self-starter, entrepreneur & an industry disruptor at 26, he became a part of the first generation of English stand-up comedians to foray into the world of mainstream digital media with AIB which took over the internet with a storm via its fun-filled videos and high humor. It’s not for no reason that we call him a Content Entrepreneur.
Content Plays a Vital Role in Building a Brand:
In today’s day and age, having the right content marketing strategy helps a brand remain relevant, efficient, and effective. Talking to Ankur Warikoo on Building It Up with Bertelsmann podcast, Tanmay explains how budding entrepreneurs and industry professionals make the same mistake of focusing less on content and are hence unable to realize the true magic of what it can do for their brand.
He further suggests founders to think beyond the job descriptions in the team. They must focus on building a creative approach right from the start and have the content and design team take part in the decision-making process. This will ensure consistent amalgamation and deeper insights not just on marketing but also on the overall product experience for end-user.
On the consistency part, Tanmay explains how running two or three campaigns in a year would not necessarily build a powerful brand. It is through churning out content for years and being consistent at it.
Food delivery joint Zomato is one example that he fondly recalls as it has such a high top of the mind re-all value. Zomato having Akshar Pathak involved right from the days of its inception, has helped Zomato’s brand story be consistent through times.
Staying relevant on Social?
Tanmay puts a lot of emphasis on the fact that although Google and Facebook will get people in but ultimately social media strategies will keep them hooked. This is even more relevant now when a global pandemic has jolted one and all, regularity in sharing content and maintaining a streamlined communication with your audience, becomes critical.
Influencers — What’s in it for them
With the audience attaching more value to quality than quantity, social content creators with niche but highly relevant audiences can often offer more value than those with massive followers but limited engagement.
Influencer marketing has been around for quite some time now. More than two-thirds of North American retailers use some form of influencer marketing and almost half of US and UK digital marketers spend at least 10% of their marketing communication budget on influencer marketing. But the bigger question is — can this work in the context of the Indian market?
Tanmay believes influencer marketing in the country is slowly picking up and explains how it is an outcome of being consistent and innovative over a prolonged period rather than an overnight success.
In order to identify and partner with the right influencers at a reasonable cost, he suggests brands should align their brand’s ideas with the influencer’s interests and area of expertise. He also urges, influencers to leverage their network and interact with the brands and be open to a wide array of opportunities to grow. He shares how during AIB days, Tanmay would leverage his network continuously to gain traction, and maintaining a healthier relationship provided him certain ease of working.
Virality is a product of experimentation
With the growing sophistication of social media, the virality of online content has become an indicator of online message effectiveness, and many of the founder’s dream of having their content go viral across social media channels.
Tanmay however, describes how people assume that virality can be bought by money but is in turn a more scientific process of constant experimentation and learning from things that don’t go well. Further, keeping a faster feedback loop helps one decode what the audience resonates with.
Looking at the anatomy of viral content, one has to keep in mind that the content itself must be worthy of being shared. It has to solve a particular problem, evoke an emotion, or help spread positivity to make something better. It has to do something of these to catch people’s attention so that one can share it with their social network.
In a nutshell
The path to stand-out as a brand demands research, creativity, and consistency. The payoff goes deeper than short term ROI, offering companies an opportunity for long term success. To make businesses more powerful social media will play an even bigger role in the future as brands who get it right will ultimately keep their audience hooked.
